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Universidade de Aveiro Departamento de Línguas e Culturas 2008 Sandra Cristina Reis Representações da Juventude Americana no Cinema Marques de Oliveira de Hollywood da Década de Oitenta Representations of American Youth in Hollywood Film in the 1980s Dissertação apresentada à Universidade de Aveiro para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Línguas, Literaturas e Culturas, variante de Estudos Ingleses, realizada sob a orientação científica do Prof. Dr. Anthony David Barker, Professor Associado do Departamento de Línguas e Culturas da Universidade de Aveiro. ii o júri Presidente Doutor Kenneth David Callahan Professor Associado da Universidade de Aveiro Vogais Doutor Anthony David Barker Professor Associado da Universidade de Aveiro (Orientador) Doutor Nelson Troca Zagalo Professor Auxiliar do Instituto de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade do Minho iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Anthony Barker for his support, precious corrections, patience and encouragement. This work would not have been possible without his diverse material sources and insightful discussions about film, television and the 1980s.I would also like to thank Professors Aline Ferreira, David Callahan and Gillian Moreira for their contribution to my formation in Literature and Cultural Studies. iv Palavras-chave adolescentes, América, década de 80, Hollywood, filme, estereótipos Resumo O presente trabalho propõe-se examinar diferentes representações da adolescência no cinema de Hollywood, particularmente na década de 80. Esta dissertação inicia a sua análise debruçando-se sobre as representações da adolescência no cinema de Hollywood, no período após a II Guerra Mundial, numa tentativa de determinar alguns acontecimento que afectaram a forma como essas representações evoluíram até ao final da década de 80. Finalmente, uma reflexão sobre os aspectos mais relevantes das representações da adolescência no cinema na época conservadora de Ronald Reagan. v Keywords adolescents, America, the 1980s, Hollywood, film, stereotypes Abstract This present study aims to examine different representations of American youth in Hollywood film, particularly in the 1980s. This dissertation begins with an examination of some representations of American youth after World War II in an attempt to investigate the trends which affected its representations and how they have evolved from then until the end of the 1980s. Finally, it offers some detailed reflections on depictions of adolescence in Hollywood film during the Reagan years. vi Contents Acknowledgements iii Resumo iv Abstract v Contents vi List of Illustrations vii Introduction 1 Chapter I - Representations of Teenagers on Film: A Brief Historical Contextualization 6 1. Teens on Film – The Background 7 2. Hollywood and the Stages of Teen Cinema since the 1950s - The 1950s 11 - The 1960s 17 - The 1970s 23 Chapter II – The Teen Genre in the 1980s 28 1. The 1980s and Film Culture 29 2. Hollywood and the Genre System 32 3. The Teen Experience of the 1980s 34 4. Teen School Films 37 5. Teen Horror Films 39 6. The Brat Pack 42 Chapter III–The Breakfast Club (1985) - From Misfit to Fit 48 1. The Representation of New Yuppie Teenage Stereotypes 49 2. The Detention Group 51 3. The School – Film Location 54 4. The Sound Track 55 5. Vilifying Adults 57 Chapter IV– St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) - Entering Adulthood 62 1. Bonfire of the Vanities – Material Values Critiqued 63 2. The Group of Friends 64 3. The Spiral Downwards 65 Final Consideration 69 Bibliography 76 Filmography 79 vii List of Illustrations 1. Victory Girls, New York 9 2. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) 11 3. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) 11 4. Blackboard Jungle (1955) 13 5. Blackboard Jungle (1955) 13 6. Teenage Crime Wave (1955) 16 7. 1950’s Teens dancing to rock’n’roll 17 8. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) 19 9. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) 19 10. The Summer of Love, San Francisco (1967) 20 11. Easy Rider (1968) 21 12. A Clockwork Orange (1971) 23 13. Jaws (1975) 24 14. Star Wars (1977) 26 15. Back to the Future (1985) 31 16. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1986) 42 17. Less Than Zero (1987) 46 18. The Breakfast Club (1985) 50 19. The Breakfast Club (1985) 51 20. The Breakfast Club (1985) 58 21. St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) 63 22. St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) 63 23. Time Magazine May 26th 1986 Cover 71 Introduction Adolescence and Hollywood have recently had and will continue to have a close relationship. In the early days of Hollywood, after the Great Depression, optimistic fables starring young actors such as Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney presented the audience with positive representations of youth. The eliding of the boundaries of adolescence has been a common practice in Hollywood film production since its beginnings. Actresses and actors like Garland and Rooney impersonated characters that were often younger than themselves, sometimes the age difference between actor and character was significant; when Judy Garland starred in The Wizard of Oz (1939) she was already 17 years old. The films these young stars appeared in were directed at an audience of the time which included men, women and children – moviegoing was considered a family leisure activity and that meant different generations watching the same movie. This situation did not suffer significant changes until television entered the American home. The mid-1950s introduced a new philosophy in Hollywood film-making; Hollywood had to attract those who despite television would still go out in the evening to entertain themselves, and thus proved to be the largest age group in America – teenagers. In order to do this, Hollywood productions started depicting a wider range of moral issues, which were designed to attract younger people to cinemas where they could view more “adult” dramas than the ones available on television. Moreover, the dismantling of Hollywood’s studio system permitted smaller studios to gain access to more screens allowing a wider variety of performances and stories, which appealed to teenagers. In fact, these changes in the industry and in society brought along other changes which reflected how American society was shaping itself. Timothy Shary, in Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary Cinema, writes: Then with the resolution of World War II, a distinct population in America began to emerge: teenagers. Gradually the age between childhood and adulthood came to be codified, debated, celebrated, and perhaps most significantly, elongated. More young people stayed in school, and with the arrival of postwar prosperity, more began attending college. Other factors contributed to the burgeoning presence of the teenager in the 1950’s: the greater availability of automobiles, which allowed youth to travel and thus achieve a certain independence; the recovering economy, which gave many teens extra money for entertainment outside the home; the popular reception of rock and roll music, which clearly flew in the face of previous standards; 2 and the influence of television, which, while giving all Americans a new common entertainment medium, also kept more adults at home. (p.3-4) Relevant to this study is the fact that the adolescent years, between childhood and adulthood, underwent deep transformations during and after the World War II. By the end of World War II teenagers became a highly visible age group and many moral panics in American society were related to the ongoing social transformations initiated during and after the war years. Moral panics related to rock and roll music and juvenile delinquency were in many cases overreactions to the natural process of economic and social change. A straightforward definition for this age group is not simple. It depends upon one’s standpoint and area of knowledge (anthropological, biological, psychological or sociological). It can range from 12 to 22 years old. This represents a range that comprises the beginning of junior high school to late adolescence and admission into the post-high school world of young adults. For the purpose of my study I will consider films produced in Hollywood in the 1980s which focus on teenagers between the ages of 14 and 20. This represents a range that comprises the beginning of high school to late adolescence and admission into the post-high school world of young adults and work. As the field is vast, I will merely concentrate my attentions in films of the 1980s. As I have said, this study will analyse youth representations in Hollywood film productions during the 1980s as well as the issues and trends that these representations raise and reflect. The last century was prolific in “moral panics” around young people and social behaviour and the cinema has been a regular place where these panics are ventilated. Associated with these moral panics were some Hollywood exploitation productions of the late 1950s: they had controversial contents (commonly juvenile delinquency, rock and roll, etc.) and were targeted at teenagers. The development of youth culture, especially after World War II and how it is reflected in Hollywood’s production schedules has a particular relevance for this study due to the evident changes in family structures, parents’ roles, moral standards and social behaviour. Teen films, viewed as an important sub-genre, indicate adolescent trends and cultural attitudes about youth. Jon Lewis in The Road to Romance and Ruin: Teen Films and Youth Culture writes: The astonishing emergence of youth culture after the Second World War (as a distinct, moneyed, seemingly homogeneous subculture with its own set of rituals and practices) prompted an immediate response from the 3 burgeoning postwar consumer-leisure industry. Just as sociologists and cultural historians began talking about the phenomenon of youth culture, the advertising, recording, television and movie industries took aim at this new target market. Today, in order to study youth culture adequately, we must focus on the essential paradox of youth as both mass movement and mass market.